SF Giants: Regardless of need for speed, need for power just as great

The SF Giants need to find a way to score more runs. But so far all they’re talking about is a need for more speed and outfield defense. While they need that, it won’t matter if nobody can hit them home.

The SF Giants were last in offense last season. Second to last in runs scored, last in wRC+, last in slugging percentage, last in OPS and last in home-runs. They were the only team to not have multiple players with 15+ home-runs. What the Giants weren’t last in? Stolen Bases. But no, speed and defense is what we’re all talking about for some odd reason.

Look the Giants need power, and they need it bad. Brandon Belt is the only guy who can hit 20+ homers on this roster. Buster Posey doesn’t have the legs or protection for it, Brandon Crawford might be good for 15+ at the most, and Joe Panik would be lucky to hit double digits.

Those all are FINE actually, if they replace one of the guys in the outfield who combined to hit 43 homers with that unit (surprisingly second to last as the Mariners had the most power-less outfield in baseball). Because frankly the only real power threats they have are infielders. That’s really bad.

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You know what else was really bad? The outfield defense. They had a league worst -45 dRS for outfield units. So not only were they not bringing in runs at the plate, they weren’t saving runs either.

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The Giants for some reason really do think they need to upgrade speed and defense. While both would be super nice, they still need power, just as much as they need speed. The thing is there is plenty of both combos in this free agent market, and likely available on the trade market as well.

All I want is for the Giants to not do what they did last offseason. They thought their only issue was the bullpen, and never addressed their continually declining offense and outfield defense.

All three imploded and Bobby Evans has egg on his face after one of the worst seasons in franchise history. They were convinced they didn’t need any offensive upgrades.

They in fact clearly did, and now they’re sitting there doing the same thing. They’re convinced they don’t need more power, but they need more speed and defense. In the current era of baseball, you gotta have some power. If you don’t have power, you aren’t going to score enough runs, simple enough.

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I’m not entirely convinced that their pitching staff next year is going to be able to hold opponents to under 4 runs on an average night. That means they need to be averaging 4-6 runs a game if they want to win a lot of games. Just by adding a speedy centerfielder, the Giants think they can get themselves to that spot. If they truly believe that, then they’re going to end up with a lopsided loss column all over again.

I’m also not trying to say the Giants need to ignore the need for speed and defense. They need that badly, but they need power just as bad, and they need to go find it. Hopefully the front office realizes that.